The CME Group suspended trading across major futures, options, and currency markets following a systems failure at its CyrusOne data centers.
The outage left traders without live pricing for commodities, equity benchmarks, and major forex pairs.
Brokers withdrew products with unreliable feeds, slowing activity during a quiet post-holiday session in Asia.
CME confirmed support teams are working to restore systems and provide pre-open updates as soon as possible.
Cooling system malfunction freezes global trading
Reuters reported that the disruption originated from a cooling malfunction at CyrusOne facilities that support CME’s infrastructure.Â
The issue triggered a complete standstill on the Globex platform, affecting crude, gold, Treasuries, palm oil, and equity futures.
The outage also impacted the EBS electronic forex platform, leaving quotes for euro/dollar and dollar/yen pairs unrefreshed.
Traders received the halt notice shortly before 0300 GMT, complicating execution strategies during already-thin liquidity after the Thanksgiving break.
CMC Markets noted that several commodities were removed from trading, while remaining instruments relied on internal calculations.
Two-way prices became riskier, and volatility was expected once the markets reopened with delayed price discovery.
IG Markets analyst Tony Sycamore told Reuters that interest in transactions remained high despite the limited activity, adding that the outage “hasn’t helped at all” during a volatile trading month.
CME’s infrastructure and crypto expansion amid disruption
The outage comes as CME actively invests in infrastructure upgrades and technology innovation.
Earlier this year, CME partnered with Google Cloud to explore tokenization and efficient asset management through the Universal Ledger system.
The exchange also recently announced new spot-quoted futures contracts for XRP and Solana, scheduled to go live on December 15 pending regulatory approval.
These products aim to provide institutions with flexible hedging tools and lower margin requirements, alongside options tied to the contracts.
Despite the temporary shutdown, CME reported record volumes in crypto and US Treasury trading this year.
The company’s stock has gained more than 20% year-to-date, with long-term shareholders seeing returns approaching 90% over five years.
The incident highlights infrastructure vulnerability during high-frequency trading periods.
Past technical disruptions at exchanges such as LSEG and the Swiss Exchange were referenced as similar events, causing brief trading interruptions.
Asia-based traders said the outage forced desks to adjust strategies while operating under limited visibility.
Reuters reported that spot forex trading shifted to alternative venues, whereas futures desks had fewer options.
CME stated that it aimed to resolve the issue promptly and keep clients informed about pre-open details.